Jungle resorts in Koh Kong offer an authentic and welcome eco-tourism experience in a country where dredging and dam-building are wreaking havoc
With the tourist trail expanding across the key provinces of Cambodia, there is certainly a fair share of places from boutique hotels to high-end resorts for visitors to crash, but it is perhaps the eco-conscious options that are drawing the most attention from travellers.
Like Thailand 40 years ago, the rapid pace of new developments in the tourism sector has led some people to focus their attention on the remaining natural assets. A new class of visitors is hiking past the main attractions of Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh and toward little-seen frontiers yet to be touched by the mainstream. Koh Kong province is where many of them go.
The heart of the Cambodian jungle, Koh Kong is full of stunning wildlife and equally impressive waterfalls and rivers, all running through the beautiful Cardamom Mountains. Visitors can choose to either stay in town on the cheap or book resorts located in centre of it all, kayaking passed untouched mangroves, exploring the local fishing villages, or hiking nature trails in the tropical rainforest.
With the tourist trail expanding across the key provinces of Cambodia, there is certainly a fair share of places from boutique hotels to high-end resorts for visitors to crash, but it is perhaps the eco-conscious options that are drawing the most attention from travellers.
Like Thailand 40 years ago, the rapid pace of new developments in the tourism sector has led some people to focus their attention on the remaining natural assets. A new class of visitors is hiking past the main attractions of Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh and toward little-seen frontiers yet to be touched by the mainstream. Koh Kong province is where many of them go.
The heart of the Cambodian jungle, Koh Kong is full of stunning wildlife and equally impressive waterfalls and rivers, all running through the beautiful Cardamom Mountains. Visitors can choose to either stay in town on the cheap or book resorts located in centre of it all, kayaking passed untouched mangroves, exploring the local fishing villages, or hiking nature trails in the tropical rainforest.
Others will choose yet to take a boat ride out to the pristine and virtually vacant beaches of Koh Kong Island or take to the rapids of O’bak Retes.
Koh Kong is undoubtedly filled with appeal for any nature enthusiast, but for all of its beauty the area is also the location of ongoing and rampant ecological crimes. Endless sand dredging threatens to collapse the river banks, while invasive construction on Chinese-funded hydropower dam projects has taken hold in the province. They are a sombre reminder to visitors that choosing to participate in ecological tourism is just as important as enjoying it.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/tourism/336493/cambodia-s-green-retreat
An interesting article about Cambodia wildlife can be read on the Cambodian Daily website
In a program supported by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), rangers from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry Administration in the country’s remaining forests are collecting stunning images that reveal species still under threat from poaching, land concessions and illegal logging.
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/selected-features/an-eye-in-the-wild-8026/
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